TITLE:  KENYA HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES, 1994
AUTHOR:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DATE:  FEBRUARY 1995

                             KENYA


After 9 years as a single-party state led by the Kenya Africa
National Union (KANU), a 1991 constitutional amendment restored
multiparty democracy.  However, President Daniel Arap Moi and
his KANU party continued to dominate the political process.  In
addition to his role as President, Moi also heads the military,
university, civil service, and provincial, district, and local
governance systems.  KANU controls a majority of the National
Assembly's 200 seats.

The large internal security apparatus includes the police
Criminal Investigation Department (CID), the paramilitary
General Services Unit (GSU), and the Directorate of Security
and Intelligence (DSI).  The CID and DSI investigate criminal
activity and also monitor persons the State considers
subversive.  The internal security apparatus committed abuses
against suspected criminals (including street children) and
continued to harass opposition politicians and critics of the
Government.  City council security officers, known as
"Askaris," also committed abuses against licensed vendors.

The economy includes a well-developed private sector in trade
and light manufacturing as well as a strong agricultural sector
that provides food for local consumption and substantial
exports of coffee, tea, and other commodities.  Tourism
remained the top foreign exchange earner.  The 1993 economic
reform program has slowed inflation and expanded trade, while
price controls have been eliminated, and the official exchange
rate has aligned with the free market rate.  Future challenges
to the country's continued improvement are privatization of
state-owned enterprises and civil service reform.  Although the
population growth rate declined from 3.7 percent to 2.9 percent
between 1989 and 1993, unemployment remains high at about 22
percent.

The Government took some steps to improve its human rights
practices in 1994.  Nevertheless, serious human rights problems
persisted.  In June the Attorney General withdrew most charges
against opposition leaders facing trials.  However, the
Government continued to intimidate and harass those opposed to
government/KANU policies and regularly interfered with many
civil liberties--notably freedoms of speech, press, assembly,
and association--in attempts to silence critics.  Security
forces continued to arrest and detain temporarily opposition
parliamentarians and journalists, harassed voters in several
by-elections, broke up lawful public gatherings, and flouted
international labor covenants by quashing attempts by doctors
and university professors to form unions.  During the year, the
Police Commissioner acknowledged problems of police brutality
and domestic violence, both of which remained serious problems.

Ethnic violence in the Rift Valley decreased considerably over
the past year, following the Government's establishment of
security zones.  Nevertheless, questions remain about the
Government's and KANU's roles in fomenting the violence.  After
initially cooperating with international relief organizations
to resettle displaced victims of the ethnic violence, late in
the year the Government forcibly relocated approximately 2,000
Maela camp residents, calling into question the Government's
commitment to work cooperatively to resettle the displaced.

RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Section 1  Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including
           Freedom from:

     a.  Political and Other Extrajudicial Killing

There were no reports of political killings by government
security forces.  However, in a case with political undertones,
approximately 45 unidentified assailants raided the home of
opposition parliamentarian Peter Anyang Nyong'o on March 4 and
murdered Nyong'o's uncle.  Nyong'o issued a press statement
implicating the Government in the raid and was subsequently
temporarily detained by police.  At year's end, five suspects
arrested in connection with the attack were in custody awaiting
a trial date.  Six persons were killed in postelection
violence, although there is no evidence that either the
Government or the opposition parties were responsible (see
Section 3).

Substantial evidence dating from 1991 indicates that high-level
government officials were complicit in instigating and
promoting the ethnic clashes, which had as of year's end
claimed over 1,000 lives and displaced 250,000 people (see
Section 1.g.).

On July 29, the High Court acquitted Jonah Anguka, the former
Rift Valley provincial commissioner, who had been accused of
killing Foreign Minister Robert Ouko in 1990.  Although
presidential confidant Nicholas Biwott had been named as a
principal suspect, the Attorney General claimed that there was
insufficient evidence to try him.  (The other principal
suspect, Hezekiah Oyugi, died of natural causes in 1992.)  The
Attorney General also ruled out attempts by opposition
politicians to investigate the murder privately, asserting that
only he was constitutionally empowered to initiate such
proceedings.

Kenyan police used excessive lethal force on several occasions
in attempts to apprehend criminal suspects.  In a widely
publicized case in August, a police reservist reportedly shot
and killed a homeless child for attempting to steal a car
mirror.  After several protests and calls for an inquiry into
the incident, the authorities charged the reservist with murder
but had not brought him to trial by year's end.  Police
reservists have also been implicated in the deaths of five
other street children.  While most prison deaths stemmed from
disease and lack of medical care, there was at least one death
as a result of police brutality.  Charles Ireri Njeru, arrested
March 29 in Karaba on suspicion of theft, died the following
day in police custody.  The postmortem report indicated that he
had died from multiple injuries caused by a blunt object.  The
authorities arrested two Karaba constables, charged them with
Njeru's murder, and issued a warrant of arrest for a third
constable who remained at large.

In late December, the Government had still not made an
accounting for the death of Jackson Mutonye Ndegwa, who was
arrested November 2, 1993, after an alleged raid on the Ndeiya
chief's camp, an arsenal near Nairobi.  The police reported he
died the following morning of injuries sustained during the
arrest, although there were credible reports that the police
had interrogated him the previous night.  At year's end, the
investigation was ongoing.

The Government still has not taken any steps to punish those
responsible for the September 1993 beating death of the nephew
of Central Organization of Trade Unions' Secretary General
Joseph Mugalla.

Mob violence remained a serious problem in 1994, although there
are no statistics available on the number of deaths.  The
Government condemned the practice but has taken no action to
address the problem, as it treats such incidents as individual
cases of murder.

     b.  Disappearance

The only alleged disappearance concerned an Islamic Party of
Kenya (IPK) activist, Mohammed Wekesa, who was arrested in
August with two other persons in connection with disturbances
in Mombasa.  Although Wekesa was supposedly released, he has
not been seen since his arrest.

     c.  Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading
         Treatment or Punishment

Despite constitutional provisions and the Police Commissioner's
June announcement that torture was prohibited and would not be
tolerated, there continued to be credible reports that the
police and security forces resorted to torture and brutality.
Security forces also used severe methods to break up both
licensed and unlicensed public assemblies.

In particular, police targeted for abuse those connected with
Koigi Wa Wamwere, the former parliamentarian on trial for his
alleged raid on the Bahati police station in Nakuru in November
1993.  In July Nakuru police arrested Wamwere's cousin,
Geoffrey Kuria Kariuki, on theft charges and beat him
unconscious with rifle butts, batons, and kicks.  Relatives who
glimpsed Kariuki during his subsequent 10-day incommunicado
confinement reported that he had swollen lips, a swollen left
eye, and a deep wound on the right side of his forehead.
Police arrested two other associates of Wamwere, Michael Kungu
and John Kinyanjui, on the same night as Kariuki and likewise
battered them.  According to the Kenya Human Rights Commission,
Kungu urinated blood for 2 days as a result of his beating.  At
year's end, no action had been taken to punish the officers
responsible for the beatings.

The Government had also taken no disciplinary measures against
policemen responsible for the abuse of those arrested in
connection with Koigi Wa Wamwere's alleged police station
raid.  (Eleven of the original 15 suspects have been cleared of
all charges.)  The injuries sustained by the suspects included
open and infected wounds, swelling and bruising at the knee and
ankle joints, and bleeding from under the toenails.  On
November 20, 1993, police arrested the physician who examined
the suspects, searched his office, and detained him for 3
days.  In response to diplomatic inquiries, the Government
expressed dissatisfaction with the police officers' explanation
of the matter and promised an investigation, but by late
December had provided no information about the results, if any.

Similar diplomatic inquiries were made in the case of six
suspects whom police tortured following an alleged raid on the
Ndeiya chief's camp in September 1993.  One of the "Ndeiya
Six," David Njenga Ngugi, reportedly had his genitals pricked
with a pin and a toenail removed with pliers.  On June 10,
Nairobi senior principal magistrate Onesmus Githingi acquitted
the six suspects and directed the Commissioner of Police,
Shadrack Kiruki, to take action against the police officers who
tortured them.  However, at year's end no officers had been
disciplined.  Moreover, in what appears to have been a punitive
measure, magistrate Githingi was transferred in September from
Nairobi to a small rural court in Kituyi.

Police continued to disperse public assemblies brutally.
According to the Kenyan Human Rights Commission, while breaking
up a University of Nairobi gathering on February 2, police
forced one student to jump from a window by throwing a gas
canister into his room.  In February police injured several
students while attempting to disband student meetings in
support of the professors' strike.  The authorities took no
action to punish offending police officers.

There were also reliable reports of police violence against
women.  When the League of Women Voters attempted to hold a
seminar on June 18 in Kirinyaga, approximately 100 armed police
chased participants from the venue by beating them with clubs.
In January about 200 women accused police of harassment and
rape when officers conducted a house-to-house search for
bandits in Wajir.  In a gender violence workshop hosted by the
Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) in September, Police
Commissioner Kiruki pledged to work with women's groups like
FIDA and to implement guidelines for the treatment of women by
police.  However, at year's end, the police had not yet taken
any specific action to implement any such guidelines.

Conditions in prisons are life-threatening, due in part to lack
of resources and in part to the Government's unwillingness to
address deficiencies in the penal system.  Both male and female
prisoners are subjected to sexual abuse, severe overcrowding, a
poor diet, inadequate health care, substandard bedding
materials, and flooded or unheated cells.  There were several
hundred deaths in prison in 1994, most of which stemmed from
disease.  Kenyan prisons do not have resident doctors, and only
one prison had a doctor permanently assigned to it.  Kenya's 78
prisons hold approximately 51,000 prisoners, 12,000 of whom are
awaiting trial.  Rape is a serious problem for both men and the
more than 3,000 women in prison.

     d.  Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile

The Constitution provides that most persons arrested or
detained shall be brought before a court "as soon as is
reasonably practicable," which would be within 24 hours of the
arrest or from the start of detention.  However, this statute
does not apply to those detained under the Preservation of
Public Security Act (PPSA).

The Constitution was amended in 1988 to allow the police to
hold persons suspected of capital offenses for 14 days before
charging them in court.  Capital offenses include such crimes
as murder and treason.  A 1993 amendment to the Penal Code
excludes weekends and holidays from this 14-day period,
potentially a significant increase in the time prisoners can be
held without charge.  In practice, suspects are sometimes held
incommunicado for 2 to 3 weeks before being brought before a
court.  Persons arrested and charged are usually allowed access
to their family and attorney promptly.  However, only family
members and attorneys may visit detainees at the discretion of
the State.  For those who have been charged, it is often
possible to be released on bail with a bond or guarantees of
return.  In cases where the defendant fails to appear in court,
the judiciary may issue a warrant for his arrest.

A relic of the colonial period, the Chief's Authority Act
empowers local officials, called "chiefs," to arrest
individuals and to restrict a person's movement without trial.
(The Chief's Act was not formally invoked in 1994 to detain
anyone, but chiefs occasionally cite the Act to take suspected
criminals to the police.  Under the Act, chiefs are technically
not supposed to detain anyone for more than 12 hours.)

The PPSA, on the other hand, allows the State to detain a
person indefinitely without charges or trial upon a
determination that it is necessary for the "preservation of
public security."  This includes "prevention and suppression of
rebellion, mutiny, violence, intimidation, disorder and crime,
unlawful attempts and conspiracies to overthrow the Government
or the Constitution," and several other grounds.  No persons
were detained under the PPSA in 1994.

In July 1993, the Attorney General created 11 task forces to
review various sections of the Constitution.  In July 1994, the
Task Force on the Reform of Penal Laws and Procedures formally
proposed that statutes relating to criminal investigation,
arrest, detention, questioning, charge, and bail be
reexamined.  The Task Force is expected to submit its final
report by December 1995.

Although the Government held no political detainees at year's
end, the police continued to detain arbitrarily politicians,
human rights advocates, journalists, and others who were
critical of the Government.  In most instances, the police held
the detainees for several hours and then released them without
formally charging them.

In August police detained the Vice Chairman of the FORD-Kenya
(FORD-K) opposition party, James Orengo, for 7 hours at the
Kisumu police station after he made public statements
implicating Nicholas Biwott in the 1990 murder of Foreign
Minister Ouko.  In June police also detained opposition
parliamentarians Martha Karua and Allan Njeru and Presbyterian
Bishop David Gitari for 2 hours after disrupting the FIDA
seminar they were attending in Kirinyaga (see Section 1.c.).
In September police held Kenyan Human Rights Commission
executive director Maina Kiai, opposition parliamentarian John
Wanyange, and 10 others for 6 hours without charge at the
Naivasha police station for attempting to demonstrate against
the denial of national identification cards to young Rift
Valley Kikuyus.

Government security forces continued to arrest and harass
opposition Members of Parliament (M.P.'s), most often charging
them with some variation of subversion or holding an unlicensed
meeting.  The authorities arrested and formally charged a total
of 15 opposition M.P.'s in 1994, as opposed to 36 in 1993.
Police arrested FORD-K M.P.'s Mukhisa Kituyi and Musikari Kombo
in April after they brought relief supplies to a Rift Valley
displaced persons camp.  The Government characterized the trip
as an unlicensed meeting in which they "uttered words
calculated to incite the public against the President."  In
April police arrested opposition M.P. Joseph Mulusya while he
was socializing with friends and charged him with participating
in an unlawful meeting.  In June the Attorney General rescinded
charges of sedition and subversion against 13 of the arrested
M.P.'s.  However, in doing so he warned M.P.'s against
slandering the President in their public remarks.  Two M.P.'s,
Stephen Ndichu and Kamuiru Gitau, still had cases outstanding
at year's end.

The police also arrested more than 400 residents of Nakuru
during periodic arbitrary sweeps.  On February 18, police
arrested more than 200 young men and women at a bus park in the
city.  They faced charges of walking in a suspicious manner,
hawking, shouting to attract passengers, entering into a
volatile area, and having no national identity cards.  Then in
May, Nakuru police arrested approximately 200 street salesmen
in the city center.  A police source later said that theft had
been increasing and that the arrests were intended to rid the
town of suspects.

The Government does not use exile as a means of political
control, but in December the Government effectively expatriated
Sheik Khalid Balala, a former leader of the Islamic Party of
Kenya (IPK), when Kenyan Embassy officials in Bonn rejected
Balala's application for a passport extension.  In 1994 the
Government also deported a number of foreigners for
questionable reasons.  In June it deported Dr. Dorothee Von
Brentano, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation development agency
representative, after she authorized funding for a political
opposition party.  In July the Government deported Australian
training editor John Lawrence after he edited a compilation of
critical social commentary that ran in the Nation newspaper.

     e.  Denial of Fair Public Trial

The court system consists of a Court of Appeals, a High Court,
and two levels of magistrates' courts where most criminal and
civil cases originate.  Judges hear all cases; there is no jury
system.  Customary law is used as a guide in civil matters
affecting persons of the same ethnic group as long as it does
not conflict with statutory law.  In 1989 High Court Justice
Norbury Dugdale ruled that the courts have no power to enforce
the "Bill of Rights," which is part of the Constitution.  In
spite of legal challenges that the ruling effectively subsumes
the judiciary under the executive branch, his decision has not
been overruled.

Civilians are tried in civilian courts, and trials are public,
although some testimony may be held in secret.  There is a
presumption of innocence, and defendants have the right to
attend their trial, to confront witnesses, and to present
witnesses and evidence.

Defendants do not have a right to government-provided legal
counsel, except in capital cases.  For noncapital charges free
legal aid is usually not available outside of Nairobi.  (Poor
people who do not have an attorney are usually found guilty for
lack of an articulate defense.)  Although defendants generally
have access to an attorney in advance of trial, defense lawyers
do not always have access to government-held evidence, since
the Government can plead the state security secrets clause as a
basis for withholding evidence.  Military personnel are tried
by courts-martial, and verdicts may be appealed.  Attorneys for
military personnel are appointed on a case by case basis by the
Chief Justice.

Civilians generally have a right to appeal a verdict to the
Kenyan High Court and ultimately to the Court of Appeal.
However, these rights were effectively denied in a case
involving Bedan Mbugua and David Makali, the editor and
reporter of The People newspaper, and attorney G.B.M. Kariuki
(see Section 2.a.).  In May the three were arraigned on
contempt charges after the two journalists published a story
quoting Kariuki's criticism of a decision delivered by the
Court of Appeal.  Under Kenyan law, a person must be tried by
the same court in which he is in contempt.  While Kariuki
agreed to pay a substantial fine, Mbugua and Makali refused and
were consequently given prison sentences of several months.

The judiciary is not independent.  The President has extensive
powers over appointments.  He appoints the Chief Justice, the
Attorney General, Court of Appeal judges, and, with the advice
of the Judicial Service Commission, High Court judges.  He also
has authority to dismiss judges and the Attorney General upon
the recommendation of a special presidentially appointed
tribunal.  In 1994 the Office of the President declined to
renew the contracts of three High Court judges who had
previously made rulings against the Government.

In September the government-aligned Judicial Service Commission
transferred senior principal magistrate Onesmus Githingi out of
Nairobi following his acquittal of the suspects in the "Ndeiya
Six" case.  Githingi had ruled that the police used torture to
coerce the confessions of the suspects, who were accused of
raiding the Ndeiya chief's camp outside Nairobi in September
1993.

The political trial of Koigi Wa Wamwere began in Nakuru on
April 12 and was continuing at year's end.  A former M.P. from
Nakuru, Wamwere has spent the better part of the past 9 years
in police detention.  He has been targeted by the Government
because of his popularity among Rift Valley Kikuyus, who are
considered political rivals of President Moi's Kalenjin tribe.
The state prosecutor in the trial finished presenting his case
in September without producing credible evidence tying Wamwere
to the alleged attack on the Bahati police station in November
1993.  In November defense attorneys began to present evidence
that Wamwere was in Nairobi on the night of the alleged raid
and that police tampered with evidence supposedly confiscated
from the crime scene.  Leading human rights groups have named
Koigi Wa Wamwere and his codefendants in the "Bahati Police
Station" case as probable political prisoners.  The trial
continues amid news that Wamwere was diagnosed in December with
bleeding ulcers, which may be connected to the harsh conditions
of his confinement.  (The trial of Geoffrey Kuria Kariuki and
two other associates of Wamwere had not commenced by year's
end.)

There was one instance in which a case was moved to a
magistrate who consistently ruled in favor of the Government.
In late December, the authorities arrested several members of a
Kikuyu religious organization in Laikipia District for tribal
oathing and later charged them in the Nakuru District Court.
Contrary to previous years, there were no instances in which
the Government prevented its critics from filing cases to
obtain legal redress from harassment.

     f.  Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or
         Correspondence

The Constitution permits searches without warrants in certain
instances "to promote the public benefit," such as in security
cases.  Although security officials generally obtain judicially
issued search warrants, at times they conduct searches without
warrants to apprehend suspected criminals or to seize property
believed to be stolen.  The courts have admitted evidence
obtained without search warrants to support convictions.

Security forces employ various means of surveillance, including
electronic surveillance and a network of informers.  Police
routinely monitored the activities of political opponents and
their associates.  In a June letter to the Director of State
Intelligence, FORD-K M.P. Paul Muite complained that several
specific vehicles with civilian license plates constantly
shadowed his movements and that of his family.  Muite, who is
also the lead defense attorney in the Wamwere case, reported
that the cars even followed him from Nairobi to the Nakuru
courtroom and back again--a 4-hour trip.

The Government monitored and intercepted correspondence as
well.  In August the U.S.-based Robert F. Kennedy Memorial
Center for Human Rights mailed two packages to the Kenya Human
Rights Commission.  The local Nairobi post office refused to
release the packages, claiming that the reports were
"political" and "hitting at the Government."  In April police
detained and interrogated an 18-year-old student for several
hours after police intercepted a letter she had sent to
opposition M.P. Paul Muite.

City council security officers, or "Askaris," continued to
destroy the kiosks of licensed and unlicensed vendors in
several Kenyan cities.  On February 9 and 15, Nairobi Askaris
demolished and burned a stretch of vendors' booths at the
Machakos country bus terminal, destroying several thousand
dollars' worth of property.  On February 16, Askaris beat and
arrested the chairman of the Vendors' Association when he
visited the Machakos bus terminal.  Askaris also arrested and
confiscated goods from vendors at the Kisumu town center in
February.

Although Kenyans are theoretically free to choose their
political affiliation, government employees continued to be
warned to support the ruling party or be fired.  In May the
Government dismissed a permanent secretary in the Ministry of
Labor after he reportedly made contact with an opposition party
member.

     g.  Use of Excessive Force and Violations of Humanitarian
         Law in Internal Conflicts

Ethnic clashes that began in 1991 have killed over 1,000
civilians and displaced 250,000 persons.  Violent clashes
involving several ethnic groups continued throughout the year,
albeit less frequently than in 1993.  International attention
has focused on the Kikuyus whom the Maasai forcibly evicted
from Enoosupukia in Narok district of the Rift Valley and were
living in displaced persons camps in Maela.  Victims of the
violence are largely from ethnic groups opposed to the ruling
party, particularly the Kikuyu, who comprise 21 percent of the
population.  For example, in the first half of the year, there
were violent attacks by Maasai directed at Kikuyus in which
villagers were murdered, houses burned, and property
confiscated.  At year's end, tensions remained high in Molo and
sites of other clashes because government efforts to promote
reconciliation had not been fully successful.

Serious questions remain about the Government's complicity in
instigating the violence, and on several occasions in 1994 KANU
and Government officials made statements targeting particular
ethnic groups that led to renewed violence.  Clashes occurred
in March in Burnt Forest between Kalenjins and Kikuyus, in June
in Mombasa between coastal groups and Luos, and in Turkana
between non-Turkana and Turkana.  All of these followed
inciteful statements made by government or KANU officials.  The
Government took no action to disavow or punish those officials
or others who incited violence.  Reports by several
organizations, including a special parliamentary committee, the
Catholic Bishops of Kenya, the National Council of Churches of
Kenya (NCCK), the National Elections Monitoring Group, the
Kenya Human Rights Commission, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial
Center, and Human Rights Watch/Africa placed primary blame for
the violence on the Government.  Critics charge that the
Government initially supported tribal clashes to strengthen its
hold on power and to prove its assertion that multiparty
politics will not work in Kenya.

In 1993 the Government announced measures to control the ethnic
violence by establishing "security zones" in areas hardest hit
around Molo, Londiani, Elgburgon, and Burnt Forest.  These
measures were successful in curtailing the violence.
Regulations introduced in the security zones severely restrict
entry and movement and grant security forces search and seizure
rights within the zones.  However, they also authorize security
forces to shoot to kill in cases in which there was suspicion
that a crime had occurred, such as illegal entry into the
security zones.  The regulations also absolve government forces
from responsibility for death and destruction in the zones by
specifically prohibiting suits for compensation.  Despite these
restrictions, there were sporadic reports of violent clashes
within the security zones.

Citing the provisions of the security zone regulations, the
Government sought to prevent opposition M.P.'s, domestic and
international human rights advocates, and most journalists from
entering the zones, and arrested many who did so.  In early
1994, the Government reluctantly allowed NGO's working under
the U.N. Development Program (UNDP) displaced persons program
and a few others, including diplomatic officials, some access
to the security zones.  Later in the year, the local
administration also allowed media representatives to accompany
important visitors and diplomats to the zones.  The UNDP Rogge
report, published in September, noted that the Government had
made an effort to reduce tensions and to resettle those
displaced.  The report estimated that 30 percent of those
displaced had been resettled to their villages, that 50 percent
were in various stages of return, and that another 20 percent